Book Reviews : JANE MORGAN AND LUCIA ZEDNER, Child Victims: Crime, Impact and Criminal Justice. Oxford: Clarendon Paperbacks, 1992, £25 hardback, £9.95 paperback
| Author | Michael Little |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/096466399300200110 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
118
Wexler,
D.
and
B.
Winick
(1991)
Essays
in
Therapeutic
Jurisprudence.
Durham,
NC:
Carolina
Academic
Press.
BILL
HEBENTON
Department
of Social
Policy,
University
of Manchester,
UK
JANE
MORGAN
AND
LUCIA
ZEDNER,
Child
Victims:
Crime,
Impact
and
Criminal Justice.
Oxford:
Clarendon
Paperbacks,
1992,
£25
hardback,
£9.95
paperback.
Every
now
and
then,
I
pass
idle
moments
by
plotting
the
future
direction
of
research
into
child
protection.
A
helpful
guide
is
the
history
of
investigation
into
juvenile
delinquency.
First,
the
emphasis
on
poverty;
then
the
separation
of
child
from
adult
offenders;
next
the
attempts
to
isolate
and
treat
the
delinquent
type;
only
to
be
followed
by
the
finding
that
nearly
everybody
is
delinquent
at
least
once
in
their
life.
Then,
as
realization
dawns
that
treatment
is
largely
ineffective
and
that
labelling
only
serves
to
enhance
a
criminal
identity,
we
switch
to
diversionary
tactics,
keeping
the
young
offender
away
from
statutory
interventions.
Mixed
into
this
at
various
stages
we
have
sub-cultural
explanations
as
well
as
the
welfare
and
justice
approaches.
It
is
not
a
perfect
guide,
but
it is
interesting
how,
in
many
respects,
child
abuse
research
has
followed
the
pattern
of
policy
developments
in
delinquency,
albeit
with
greater
alacrity
and,
currently
at
least,
with
considerably
more
funds.
Government
alone
has
supported
nearly
forty
major
studies
into
different
aspects
of
the
child
protection
system
in
recent
years.
The
child
abuse
industry
thunders
forth
and,
if
my
musing
is
correct,
it
is
only
a
matter
of
time
before
we
discover
that
some
types
of
abuse
are
a
normal
experience
of
childhood
and
that
minimal
intervention
is
the
optimum
state
response.
Mine
is
a
rather
trite
piece
of
analysis.
Jane
Morgan
and
Lucia
Zedner,
in
contrast,
have
pursued
part
of
this
argument
much
more
seriously
and
applied
one
aspect
of
recent
criminological
research,
that
concerning
the
rights
and
needs
of
victims,
to
the
child
abuse
context.
Children
are
frequently
victims
of
crimes,
either
directly,
such
as
when
they
have
their
possessions
stolen,
or
indirectly,
such
as
when
they
witness
assaults
between
family
members.
Should
victim
support,
either by
counselling
or
by
financial
reparation,
be
made
available
to
a
child
victim?
The
study
is
based
upon
a
survey
of
all
police
files
in
two
sub-divisions
of
Oxfordshire
and
Bedfordshire
over
a
calendar
year.
This
produced
682
cases
where
a
child
was
a
victim
of
crime.
We
have
become
accustomed
to
thinking
of
child
victimization
solely
in
terms
of
child
abuse
but
they
are
frequently
victims
of
other
crimes.
They
lose
their
property -
especially
their
bicycles -
occasionally
they
are
on
the
receiving
end
of
robbery
or
even
witness
a
burglary.
There
are
a
few
instances
where
the
child
was
abducted
or
kidnapped
and
one
was
murdered.
Teenagers
are
frequently
victims
of
assault -
representing
a
third
of
all
crimes
against
children
in
the
survey -
and
there
is,
of
course,
the
additional
risk
of
sexual
abuse,
whether
familial
or
otherwise.
Since
the
early
1970s,
there
has
been
a
growing
interest
in
the
needs
and
rights
of
victims,
an
interest
which
has
led
to
the
establishment of
over
350
victim
support
schemes.
These
now
deal
with
in
excess
of
400,000
referrals
each
year,
an
effort
which
employs
more
than
10,000
volunteers.
In
addition,
the
Criminal
Injuries
Compensation
Board
makes
nearly
30,000
awards
to
victims
of
crime
annually.
But,
most
of
these
activities
are
devoted
to
adults.
For
children,
things
can
be
different.
The
criminal
justice
system
treats
suspicion
of
child
abuse
differently
from
other
forms
of
allegation.
We
have
to
be
sure
that
the
best
interests
of
the
child
are
served
at
each
point
in
the
investigation,
constantly
obeying
the
legal
edict
that
the
child’s
welfare
is
paramount.
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